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Bush Administration Moves Towards Lifting India-Pakistan Sanctions
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (New Agencies) - President George W. Bush's administration is moving quickly towards lifting nuclear sanctions on India and Pakistan, a process lent added momentum in the diplomatic fallout of terror attacks on U.S. soil, officials and congressional sources said Friday.
State Department number three Marc Grossman has been giving classified briefings to members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to gauge the depth of support for the move, the sources said.
Former President Bill Clinton slapped sanctions on bitter rivals India and Pakistan when they shocked the world by conducting nuclear weapons tests in 1998, raising the alarming prospect of a South Asian nuclear arms race.
The Bush administration has made no secret of the fact that it believes the measures have outlived their usefulness and should be struck from the statute books.
And in recent days it has appeared keen to offer Pakistan help to battle political instability after piling pressure on Islamabad to force Afghanistan's Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden - Washington's top suspect in the assaults on New York and the Pentagon which killed more than 6,000 people.
That desire was highlighted earlier Friday, when a senior Western diplomat in Islamabad said that the sanctions would soon be removed.
The diplomat said Washington would also reschedule $600 million in debt with Pakistan through the Paris Club of international creditors next week to help Islamabad through the instability created by possible U.S. strikes against Afghanistan.
"Everything that has been asked of the United States has fitted in with Pakistan's program of economic reform," said the diplomat, requesting anonymity.
Both India and Pakistan have been pushing hard for the lifting of the sanctions, which mainly restrict the provision of U.S. credits, military sales, economic assistance, and loans to both India and Pakistan after the nuclear tests.
Grossman, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, gave a closed-door briefing to members of the House or Representatives International Relations committee this week, a congressional source said.
A similar briefing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took place Friday.
Sources say that the administration wants to wipe the sanctions totally off the statute books with a presidential waiver, but there is sufficient sentiment in Congress for a fallback position that would see sanctions lifted - but immediately reapplied in the event of further nuclear tests.
A senior State Department official noted that the process of evaluating the sanctions had been underway since a South Asia policy review was launched at the start of the Bush administration in January.
"We are up on the Hill this week talking with people who have been interested in South Asia," said a senior official on condition of anonymity.
Complicating the issue are the extra layers of sanctions facing Pakistan.
Islamabad maintains that sanctions over non-proliferation are unfair, and has been campaigning actively against for 18 months for their lifting.
"Obviously we are putting it into context of the recent events, but remember this review has been underway for some time."
Pakistan, a U.S. Cold War ally, complains that it has always come off second best in U.S. nuclear policy - especially as Washington has tended to lean closer to India in recent years.
It first faced U.S. sanctions under the Symington amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961 due to concerns over its nuclear program. Congress later lifted most restrictions.
Then, in 1990, all U.S. military and economic aid to Pakistan was suspended under the Pressler amendment, which required the president to annually certify that Islamabad did "not possess a nuclear explosive device".
A separate set of sanctions imposed to punish Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for overturning Nawaz Sharif's government will only be lifted when democracy is restored.
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